January 16th

1920: Prohibition began, outlawing the sale of liquor, as the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect.

1944: General Dwight D. Eisenhower assumed command of the Allied invasion force that later invaded northern Europe from England during World War II

1953: Chevrolet introduces the Corvette at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

1991: The Persian Gulf War began as the United States and allied nations launched Operation Desert Storm to drive Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. (Bennett & Cribb, 2010)

Mark Steyn, Commentary: “What Is the Future of Conservatism?”

“Not to be too pedantic, but for there to be a “future of conservatism in America” there first has to be a future in America. And that’s a more open question than my more optimistic comrades like to admit. The Brokest Nation in History has just told the rest of the world that it is incapable of serious course correction–and around the planet prudent friends and enemies will begin planning for a post-American order. So at some point reality will intervene–either in the form of total societal collapse or, one hopes, something marginally less convulsive. The first responsibility of conservatives between now and 2016 is to have an adult conversation with the citizenry–the one that Mitt Romney chose to eschew in favor of vague jobs promises punctuated by bold assertions that “I believe in America.” So what? What matters is whether reality still believes in America.

“And, when reality strikes, will Americans turn to conservatism? The evidence from November is not reassuring. . .”

Rush: Christie from Ohio – A Low-Information Voter

“I have been trying to tell everybody I know since I have become more informed that they need to start paying attention, because I come from a group of people in my world, we have children, we have basketball games and football games and cheerleading practices and music lessons and PTA. Then we have to clean up when we get home. Then we have to make dinner and then clean up from dinner. Then it’s bath time and it’s bedtime. We don’t have time to pay attention to CNN, NBC, MSNBC, all that garbage. We watch the local news, mostly at ten o’clock and then we go to sleep because we can’t stay up any longer. When we are in our cars we are either talking to our children or we are listening to the music stations, which tell you way less than any of the other things do. The local news is where we get our information from. The local news does not tell you anything at all. When I heard about the Benghazi thing, you know, that guy that did that stuff over in the Middle East, I rushed home and waited and made sure that I made the ten o’clock news to watch it, even though I had 50 other things that I had to do. I made sure that I could watch it. Twenty-five minutes after it started, it came on, they spent a minute on it, and I know it was a minute and 12 seconds because I rewound my DVR. A minute-twelve on the Benghazi thing, and the guy turned after he said, “An ambassador was killed and three other Americans over in…” you know, blah, blah, blah, and he turns to the lady beside him and he says, “Those people are always fighting over there. And in other news, a box of puppies was found on the interstate.” I was like, holy crap. You seriously did not spend more than a minute! They spent five minutes after that on puppies in a box.”

Maureen Dowd, NYT: “Takes One to Tango”

Another “low-information” voter?

“President Standoffish doesn’t want to be seen as a stiff.

“Most people who know me know I’m a pretty friendly guy,” he protested at his White House press conference on Monday. “And I like a good party.”

Maybe. But the president always seems to be dancing alone. And that was the vibe of his swan-song press conference for Act One of his presidency.

His words were laced with an edge — churlish, chiding and self-pitying. He sardonically presented himself as Lonely Guy, shafted by the opposition, kicking around the White House on his own. Days before his second inauguration, he seemed to be intimating that the job he had fought so hard for and won against all odds was a bit of a chore, if not a bore.

Charlie Spiering, Washington Examiner: BO’s Children

Why our kids have to pay his bills . . .

“White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced this afternoon that President Obama will unveil a “concrete package” of gun control proposals including assault weapons bans, high capacity ammunition magazine bans, and closing loopholes on background checks.

“Carney said that the president will be joined by Vice President Joe Biden as well as children who wrote to the president after the Newtown shootings.

“‘They will be joined by children around the country expressing their concerns about gun violence and school safety, along with their parents,’ Carney confirmed.

“President Obama specifically mentioned children during his December speech in response to the shooting.

“‘Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?” he asked. “I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change.’”

“How many times have you tried to have a serious conversation about current events only to have your listeners say, “I’m not interested in politics”? These are the low-info voters that the Republicans have never been able to communicate with but the Democrats know exactly how to reach them. That is why they concentrate their connections in the mainstream media and Hollywood and why these voters know more about the Kardashians than what the fiscal cliff means to the economy or where Benghazi is. It’s also why these voters tune out boring Republicans who continue to blah, blah, blah about serious stuff. The sad reality is that these voters can be manipulated easily and if the Republicans ever want to win important elections they need to learn the right way to get their message across.

William Kristol, Weekly Standard: “Totally, Unequivocally Hagel”

“On the day he was nominated as secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel gave an interview to the Lincoln Journal Star. His critics had ‘completely distorted’ his record, he complained. Rather, Hagel claimed, his record shows ‘unequivocal, total support for Israel.’

“This is unequivocal, total nonsense.

“Chuck Hagel was once proud not to be numbered among the ‘unequivocal, total’ supporters of Israel. Hagel was once proud of his standing as a lonely figure in American public life who would stand up to those who unequivocally and totally supported Israel. Hagel was once a senator who, unlike his colleagues, was proud not to have been intimidated by ‘the Jewish lobby.’ Hagel was proud of his votes against pro-Israel resolutions backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), aka ‘the Jewish lobby.’ Hagel was contemptuous of those who signed AIPAC-endorsed pro-Israel letters.

“No, Chuck Hagel was not one of those “unequivocal, total” supporters of Israel like his colleagues in the United States Senate. No siree!. . .”

Rep. Tom Cotton, WSJ: About Chuck Hagel

“Chuck Hagel, who is reportedly on the White House’s shortlist of nominees for secretary of defense, served our country admirably in Vietnam. But he is not the right person for the Pentagon.

“Our fighting men and women deserve a leader who will not only honor their service, but also advocate for them and honor their accomplishments. Regrettably, the former senator’s dismal record on Iraq suggests that he will do none of those things—for he abandoned the very troops he once voted to send to war. I would know, because I was one of them. . .”

LEADS . . .

“HARRISBURG – Taking a ride on the ol’ Pennsylvania Turnpike will cost you a bit more starting this month.

“And no, this isn’t a broken record — even if it sounds like one.

“Burdened by a state law that requires it to transfer $450 million annually to PennDOT and with more than $8 billion in debt, the Pennsylvania Turnpike this week increased tolls for a fifth consecutive year. The toll hike took effect Jan. 6, with cash customers hit with a 10 percent increase; people using E-Z Pass will charged 2 percent more.

“A trip from Ohio to New Jersey on the mainline of the turnpike will now cost $39.15 for cash customers, a 71 percent increase since 2008, and $30.77 for those using E-Z Pass, which is still a 36 percent increase in five years.

“Did I mention that before 2008 tolls were increased on just four occasions in the turnpike’s entire history dating back to 1937? It’s true. . .”

Thomas Sowell, Real Clear Politics: “Liberalism versus Blacks”

“There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds?

“San Francisco is a classic example of a city unexcelled in its liberalism. But the black population of San Francisco today is less than half of what it was back in 1970, even though the city’s total population has grown.

“Severe restrictions on building housing in San Francisco have driven rents and home prices so high that blacks and other people with low or moderate incomes have been driven out of the city. The same thing has happened in a number of other California communities dominated by liberals.

“Liberals try to show their concern for the poor by raising the level of minimum wage laws. Yet they show no interest in hard evidence that minimum wage laws create disastrous levels of unemployment among young blacks in this country, as such laws created high unemployment rates among young people in general in European countries.

“The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals’ expansion of the welfare state. Most black children grew up in homes with two parents during all that time but most grow up with only one parent today.

“Liberals have pushed affirmative action, supposedly for the benefit of blacks and other minorities. But two recent factual studies show that affirmative action in college admissions has led to black students with every qualification for success being artificially turned into failures by being mismatched with colleges for the sake of racial body count.

“The two most recent books that show this with hard facts are “Mismatch” by Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr., and “Wounds That Will Not Heal” by Russell K. Nieli. My own book “Affirmative Action Around the World” shows the same thing with different evidence. . .”

Rushbo: “Conservatives Have No Credibility with the Low-Info Crowd Because We Don’t Defend Our Own. . . ”

“. . .Tina Fey, the last year that I was on the list of Barbara Walters’ top Ten Most Fascinating Americans, the last time was two or three years ago, Tina Fey was in it for impersonating Sarah Palin, one of the Ten Most Fascinating People. She didn’t make it as Tina Fey, she made it as Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. She ended up being one of Barbara Walters’ Ten Most Fascinating because of her impersonation of Palin. Meanwhile, Palin is not in the list, and yet an impersonator is. So it’s clear as a bell to me why it’s tough to find a conservative in the media with any credibility with low-information voters. Every one of them has been taken out. There are other reasons why conservatives aren’t defended. The conservative movement is in a constant battle for people in it who want to be seen as the leader, who want to be seen as the smartest person in the room, who want to be seen as the go-to person.

And so somebody getting a lot of media attention is a threat, just in a high school jealousy sense, is a threat. So you take ’em out, you help take ’em out… .”

John Griffing, WND: Obama Interested in “Allah Is God” Curriculum

“CSCOPE, the controversial online curriculum that taught “Allah is God” and currently is used in 80 percent of Texas school districts, has caught the attention of the Obama administration’s Department of Education.

“A source in the Texas education system has told WND that Common Core operatives in the U.S. Department of Education are actively pursuing CSCOPE as a way around the Texas legislative process.

“Texas is one of the few states still resisting implementation of Common Core, Obama’s national standards initiative, which many feel is a transparent attempt to nationalize education and progressively control classroom content with minimal parental oversight.

“Implementation of Common Core is known to have been made a condition of school systems’ receipt of federal dollars under Obama’s “Race to the Top” program.

BUDGET

“President Obama has an interesting negotiating strategy when it comes to the “debt ceiling” — the point in time when the federal government has borrowed every cent Congress allows it to borrow. In a press conference yesterday, he declared he simply won’t negotiate with Republicans on the issue.

“Congress authorized spending; in fact, he said, it ordered him to spend this money (by means of legislation that could only become law if he affixed his signature to it). Therefore, Congress simply must allow the Treasury Department to go out and get more. No preconditions.

“In other words, in a tone of high dudgeon, the president has asserted that the exemplary moral behavior for the United States (with its $16 trillion debt and $1 trillion-plus in annual interest payments on that debt) is . . . to borrow more money.

“He won’t let the country be ‘held hostage,’ nor will he pay Republicans a ‘ransom.’ They are putting ‘a gun to the head’ of the American people. . .”

Paletta & Hilsenrath, WSJ: “Ugly Choices Loom Over Debt Clash

“The showdown over the nation’s debt ceiling could force the government to consider drastic steps to manage its limited cash, including delaying trillions of dollars of payments to employees, Social Security recipients, contractors and others.

“The Obama administration has said it has no backup plan to pay the government’s bills if Congress refuses to raise the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit. The White House said Saturday in a statement that “there are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or it can fail to act and put the nation into default.”

“The White House has informed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that it will miss the legal deadline for sending a budget to Congress.

“Acting Budget Director Jeff Zients told Ryan in a letter delivered Friday that the budget will not be delivered by Feb. 4, as required by law.

“Zients blamed the delay on the late passage of the “fiscal cliff” deal, and wrote that the administration is “working diligently on our budget request.”

“Under the law, President Obama must submit a budget by the first Monday in February, but he has met the deadline only once. The annual budget submission is supposed to start a congressional budgeting process, but that has also broken down. The Senate last passed a budget resolution in 2009.”

“An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study.

“But without a tax increase, said the Government Accountability Office study, the government’s highway fund is going to go dry. One reason the fund is going broke: President Obama’s push for fuel efficient cars has resulted in better mileage, and fewer stops at the pump.

“The GAO study is just the latest review of federal spending that paints a grim picture of the nation’s infrastructure. Just keeping spending at current levels, the GAO said, would require a near doubling of the gas tax to 32 cents a gallon, and that would jump to as high as 46 cents should the federal government add spending to fix crumbling infrastructure and build new roads. . .”

Brody (redux): Tell Cuomo/Hickenlooper – Prediction still a dream

An elementary school in Newtown, CT, was the stage on Friday for 27 murders and a lock-down at nearby Danbury Hospital. Irony: Newtown was also home for a state mental hospital, Fairfield Hills, from 1933-1995.

Predicting the future is an old addiction for genes and humans. Wild creatures migrate, others grow fat, and still others move to caves. A mother bear, feeding her cubs, is a soothsayer just as was true for Nordic hags who read not tea leaves but shells and bones.

People who are happy in crowds assert that owning a gun predicts more murders and suicide. Despite popular leftist convictions, John Lott showed clearly that the opposite is true . . . private gun ownership cuts crime.

Prediction has a second problem . . . no one, no one, can do it although everyone can “explain” an event after it happens. Such is true for murder in Newtown. Such is true for the weather or the stock market, it is true for suicide – we must lock up at least 1000 with identical symptoms in order to prevent one suicide. Likewise, for predictions about which pot smoker will have irreversible schizophrenic episodes, or even, which future dodderer will make your perfect mate. Even electricians are asked to read crystal balls when insurance companies ask them to predict fires from knob-and-tube wiring. The electrician who complies with this strange request treats the homeowner not as a victim but as a customer who avoids incineration from old wires tomorrow if he spends $10,000 on new wires today.

Most of us handle this task in a simple way – we pick teachers, lovers, work associates, and bowling partners because they are similar to us and, often, have been so from birth. We are less upset by what Mr. Lanza did but more by how different he was after he shot 27 people. But, then, he wasn’t so different – his mother chose to have three guns.

As for Adam’s mother – she was a fan of guns and shooting them and owned three. She also trained Adam to shoot accurately. Genomics tells us that she had two X chromosomes, he had one. Thus, whatever errors were on one of her chromosomes would likely be buffered by her second one. He had no such crutch and displayed not only Asperger’s but also schizophrenia. Thus, his behavior is explainable although, unfortunately, still unpredictable despite whatever Bloomberg or Obama tell you.

References:

Badcock, Christopher (2009) The Imprinted Brain: How Genes Set the Balance between Autism and Psychosis. London: Jessica Kingsley.

“Texas state representative Steve Toth is filing legislation for a ‘Firearms Protection Act’ similar to that which we saw in Wyoming.

“This law will make ‘any federal law banning semi-automatic handguns or limiting the size of gun magazines unenforceable within the state’s boundaries.’

“Not only will this put Texas shoulder-to-shoulder with Wyoming in making it a felony for anyone–including federal agents–to try to enforce new gun control, but according to the Tenth Amendment Center it is in perfect harmony with the actions of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, ‘who has already filed over twenty-three lawsuits against the federal government.’

“More good news–representative Toth is newly elected, which means he isn’t wasting any time. . .”

“- He has clearly communicated his intent to eviscerate the second amendment rights of American citizens by pursuing executive orders to curtail the right to keep and bear arms without congressional authorization and in violation of the second amendment.

“Below, Congressman Stockman has pledged to move for impeachment against Obama. I am standing up against Obama right beside him, will you?

“The President’s actions are an existential threat to this nation,” reads a statement by Rep. Steve Stockman. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms is what has kept this nation free and secure for over 200 years. The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible.”

“- He has lied to the American people by overseeing a cover-up of the Benghazi attack which directly led to the deaths of four American citizens. The cover-up has been called “Obama’s Watergate,” yet four months after the incident, no one in the administration has been held accountable.

“- He has brazenly undermined the power of Congress by insisting his authority came from the United Nations Security Council prior to the attack on Libya and that Congressional approval was not necessary. ‘I don’t even have to get to the Constitutional question,’ said Obama. This is an act that ‘constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution,’ according to Congressman Walter Jones.

“- He has signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act which includes provisions that permit the abduction and military detention without trial of U.S. citizens, violating Habeas Corpus. Despite Obama claiming he would not use the provisions to incarcerate U.S. citizens, it was his administration that specifically demanded these powers be included in the final NDAA bill.

“- He has violated the Constitution’s Takings and Due Process Clauses when he bullied the secured creditors of automaker Chrysler into accepting 30 cents on the dollar while politically connected labor unions and preferential others received better deals.

“- He has violated Article II of the Constitution by using signing statements as part of his executive usurpation of power.

“I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment.”

“Rep. Steve Stockman, Texas.

“For these, and other offenses which constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, including perjury of oath, abuse of authority, bribery, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming and refusal to obey a lawful order, we call for the immediate impeachment of Barack H. Obama.”

“Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman threatened Monday afternoon that he would file articles of impeachment against President Barack Obama if he institutes gun control measures with an executive order.

“Stockman warned that such executive orders would be “unconstitutional” and “infringe on our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms.”

Rush’s Thoughts on Impeachment. . .

“. . . A congressman from Texas named Stockman has actually suggested that it is an impeachable offense if the president starts using executive orders to in any way alter the Constitution, particularly the Second Amendment. But, John, let me tell you, it’s like the commission of any crime. If you are not prosecuted for it, then have you committed the crime?

“If you rob a bank but nobody prosecutes you and nobody charges you, do you get away with it? You do if nobody finds you, if nobody prosecutes you, in any crime! So if the president of the United States wants to find his way around the Constitution, and if he thinks that his opposition is so cowed and so afraid to oppose him that they won’t stop him, then yes. He can do it. The citizens cannot bring charges of impeachment. It has to be done in the House of Representatives, and it’s like a legal case.

“Charges have to be filed, presented, voted on. If it comes to it, there is a trial that takes place in the Senate. It’s an arduous process, and it is obviously never done haphazardly or taken lightly. It very rarely is a procedure taken. So your question is, “Can he be impeached?” Yeah. “Will he be?” is an entirely different matter. I don’t get the sense, John, that outside of Congressman Stockman in Texas there’s much energy to take that route in dealing with Obama right now.

“Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III declared in an exclusive Newsmax TV interview that President Barack Obama could easily be impeached if he bypassed Congress and enacted gun-control legislation by executive order.
“Meese’s comments came on the same day President Obama told the White House press corp at the last news conference of his first term that he was reviewing actions, including issuing executive orders, where he could take action without congressional approval to confront gun violence in the nation. Obama said he would present a plan within days.
“The options include stronger background checks, a meaningful ban on assault weapons, and limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines, Obama said, conceding that was unsure how such steps could pass Congress. . .”http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/meese-obama-guns-impeachable/2013/01/14/id/471412?
Reid Epstein, Politico: “Joe Biden – White House eying 19 executive actions on guns”

Send in the clowns . . .“The White House has identified 19 executive actions for President Barack Obama to move unilaterally on gun control, Vice President Joe Biden told a group of House Democrats on Monday, the administration’s first definitive statements about its response to last month’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“Later this week, Obama will formally announce his proposals to reduce gun violence, which are expected to include renewal of the assault weapons ban, universal background checks and prohibition of high-capacity magazine clips. But Biden, who has been leading Obama’s task force on the response, spent two hours briefing a small group of sympathetic House Democrats on the road ahead in the latest White House outreach to invested groups. . .”

“Vice President Biden’s gun violence task force is reportedly going to give its recommendations to President Obama tomorrow, kicking off the next stage of the gun control debate. President Obama — aided eagerly by his media cohort — will try to convince people that this is an immediate crisis with his characteristic insistence that “we can’t wait” for Congress to pass a new “assault weapons” ban.

“As the Washington Post wrote in a Saturday editorial, “The opportunity to do something serious about gun violence must not be lost.” The definition of what is “serious” — what would actually help prevent another Newtown-like school massacre — is being shaped by the left to exclude anything other than gun controls. So far, there’ no competing idea from the gun advocacy groups or Republicans who will have to fight Obama’s ideas on the floor of the House and Senate.

“While Obama and the rest are busy convincing people that only they are “serious,” gun control opponents are cornering themselves by limiting their opposition to a debate over whether we have more or fewer guns in private hands and in or around schools. That’s bad politics and a strategy that will ensure defeat. They have to do better. . .”

“I love this place. I will support this place with every fiber of my being,” said Corey Peterson, a personal trainer who stopped by the I Love Drilling Juice & Smoothie Bar on Monday morning for a thick, green drink filled with avocado, spinach and fresh apple juice.

“It’s a good place to come for lunch,” added customer Shauna Snow, “or for a good snack that’s healthy, not processed and also can give you good nutrients.”

“But there is one thing about Burnett’s latest venture that’s left some folks with a bitter taste in their mouths.

“I’m very open about it, very public about it, that I’m going to charge them a little bit more, and I have liberals come in and pay the extra dollar surcharge,” Burnett said, referring to his unique pricing structure.

“Yep, Burnett, the diehard supporter of domestic energy and longtime health food fan, charges those who identify themselves as liberals one dollar more for their drinks. The money, along with any tips received, is donated to conservative causes like The Heritage Foundation. . .”

Game Change

Read it! This 2010 book (Heilemann & Halperin) attends to the real drama – how Obama took out Hillary because she couldn’t manage her husband, staffers, or moods. I understand that Hollywood put Sarah into their bullseye – too bad for them.

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CATS is a conservative publication, almost free of advertising, and has appeared at least three times per week for the last six years. It consists of abstracts from the wider press, links to original sources, and sometimes, remarks by Jim Brody.